How to Earn Links by Creating Killer Content

Most people get links by reaching out to other sites, but as soon as you stop your outreach strategy, you stop earning links.

Constant outreach is time consuming and limited in the return on invested time. Is there another way to earn links over time? Yes, there is, and below we explore how content marketing should be incorporated into your link building strategy to maximize the impact of your SEO optimization.

Content marketing can be used as a long-term link building strategy, but how do you ensure that your content is strong enough to bring in links long after you have stopped promoting it?

How to Add Value to Content to Earn Links

Most bloggers, researchers, and internet marketing companies turn to the Internet to find information on the subject they are researching. And when they find an article that provides them with valuable information they will add a link to that article. This is one way to earn links that will continue to deliver over time.

Taking the time to research and add statistics or verified facts into your content will ensure that your article is delivering quantifiable information. Your content now becomes a source of researched information that other writers and bloggers can cite in their content. And the goal is to create content that can be referred to as a citation.

Add Research, Stats and Data to Content

When you add researched information to your content, and not merely opinion or broad strokes, it becomes valuable to other authoritative sites that may publish a link to your article, and this increases the reach of your article; you have now been promoted to a whole new audience of regular readers on that site. And it is not only individual readers, writers or bloggers who can link to your article, this type of syndication for your content also increases exposure to other websites. The growth and reach of your article is exponential and evergreen, which ensures long-term link building.

Let’s say the website that originally published or linked to your article is an authority site. It has already developed a reputation for publishing quality content and by association, your site becomes elevated as a source of quality content. Not only in the eyes of other sites and users, but also with Google. 

Most internet articles and blogs contain broad strokes of information, but lack the stats, data, and research to back up the theories, opinions, or common statements on a subject or situation.

For example, let’s say an article states that Canada is the top hockey nation. This is a broad statement that readers may not value as being valid information, and is not worth linking to unless the author happens to be a well-known authoritative figure on the subject.  However, if you add the actual data as proof of your statement, then it becomes a valuable source that can be cited by websites and writers who need verifiable information for their own articles.

Of course, this requires a little more time in R&D for the content creator, but putting in the extra effort is exactly what is needed to create quality content.

After Creation – Syndication

The next step in your link building strategy is syndication. Once you have created the article that you know holds valuable information, you will need to promote the article to get it featured on quality sites. This will take some time, but unlike constant link building outreach, once you have secured a place on one of these authoritative sites, you no longer need to promote it. The large readership of the site ensures that your content has a larger footprint.

Not only does this help build an ongoing source of traffic to your site, but as your content is shared, it also builds your reputation as a quality site,  and this can earn you more ROI in new business and conversions. 

Do Shares Guarantee Links?

It is a logical assumption that the more an article is shared, the greater the chance of links, however, this may not always be the case. So, how can you create content that encourages shares and brings in links, or ensure that your content holds the data that is most likely to be shared? The key lies in SEO research.

Research ideas that are popular will have earned a lot of backlinks on the top search results for the keyword terms on that topic.  For example, let’s say we wanted to publish a quality article on Internet marketing companies; if we conduct search research on the terms:

• Internet marketing companies report
• Internet marketing companies study
• Internet marketing companies research

And if we then use an SEO research tool to evaluate the top results on the search page, we will learn which results have earned a large number of backlinks, which tells us that data on this term will most likely be valued and will attract links.  It will also let us see if the top-ranking information is still relevant, or can we improve on it by updating it and adding the current year to make it more timely for readers.

You can also check through the comments on similar articles to learn if there are common questions that need to be answered. As you conduct your own research into a topic, you will discover where information is missing – what would you like to know, chances are other readers are looking for that information too.

Taking the extra step to provide stats and data that back-up opinions and statements is well worth the time taken. Not only can it save you time in a long-term link building strategy, but it also positions your site as an authoritative source of information, which increases the quality of your site for the search engines.

How to Find Original Data

There are many ways to find the data and statistics you need to upgrade your content. You can:

• Talk directly to customers
• Conduct surveys within your industry
• Research the data available from within your company
• Research from credible curated resources
• Link to concrete examples to illustrate points

Of course, with all content we should aim to write for the reader. So, determining who your reader is should guide the content of the article. Is your reader a beginner who wants to learn the basics, or a professional looking for more in-depth information? Earning citation links depends on answering the questions posed by the reader. 

Conclusion

Internet marketing companies understand the amount of work it can take to build an effective strategy. If you would like more information on link building contact us, or download a free SEO analysis for your company to find out what steps you need to take.